Enhancing pathways from agriculture-to-nutrition: a study of women’s empowerment in nutrition, nutrition outcomes, and, strategies for optimising nutrition among beneficiaries of a feeding trial in rural Malawi
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Date
3-12-21
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Kamuzu University of Health Sciences
Abstract
The proposed study is a cross-survey that determines associations between Women’s empowerment and maternal nutrition outcomes in a rural Malawian community.
Problem:
The nature, strength, and direction of associations between women’s empowerment and nutrition outcomes seems to vary widely and is ambiguous. No local research has assessed comprehensively associations between women’s empowerment and maternal nutrition or attempted to measure women’s empowerment in the realm of nutrition. Using a measure closely related to nutrition, the proposed study will provide data on the status of women’s empowerment and propose actions to facilitate nutrition empowerment and outcomes. This study, therefore, will not only add to the body of knowledge in the relevant fields, but will generate evidence with policy and programmatic implications.
Objectives:
Broadly, the study seeks to determine the status of nutritional empowerment among women of reproductive age in a rural Malawian community using a novel index, the Women’s Empowerment in Nutrition Index (WENI) and to assess its associations with nutrition outcomes. Specific study objectives are; (i) to determine the to etermine associations between the WENI and the Body Mass Index (BMI), Mid Upper Arm Circumference, and, dietary diversity of women in the study area; (iii) to assess the effect of provision of a staple food (maize flour) on dietary diversity, and intakes of energy, protein, iron and folate; and, (iv) to assess changes in dietary quality (diversity) among the WRA 2 years after participation in a feeding trial.
Methodology:
The study combines a cross sectional survey designed to collect and measure status of women’s empowerment in nutrition and its associations with maternal nutrition outcomes, and, secondary analysis of data from an intervention study, the “Alleviating Hidden Hunger with Agronomy (AHHA)” conducted within the Geo Nutrition project (reference: P.05/18/2393). The analysis of the AHHA data will measure changes in diversity and intakes of energy, protein, iron, and folate following receipt of a staple food (maize flour). The changes in diversity over time will also be assessed to see to what extent benefits, if any, are sustained over time. For the WENI survey, face-to-face interviews will be conducted with women who participated in the AHHA study (n=180), guided by a semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire. Microsoft Excel, IBM SPSS Statistics version 25, will be used in the data entry and analyses phase respectively. In addition to general descriptive statistics, Fischer’s LSD test and the Dunnett’s test will be used to assess changes in nutrient intakes. To test for associations between women’s empowerment in nutrition and nutrition outcomes, chi-square analyses will be used. Multivariate logistic regression will be employed to identify specific empowerment domains closely related to nutrition outcomes.
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Keywords
Women empowerment in Nutrition